Jean's Secret
by Ms.Wings
Summary: (As Time Goes By). Jean has a secret that she has garded for years. How will everyone handle it?
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from As Time Goes By!

Chapter One- The Secret

Jean smiled as she watched the girls walk to work that morning. But they weren't girls anymore. They were grown women; older than she had been at the time Judy was born and much older than when she had met Lionel. As she watched them she thought of when they were little girls. They did not know each other then; but she knew that they should have. She shut the curtain and continued with her day, as if there was anything to be done.

Lionel had gone out earlier that morning, leaving her to an empty house and nothing to do. Lionel would be gone that night too; he had a war reunion to attend. This left her around ten or twelve hours or more on her own to think or act. During that time she thought and she successfully cleaned the house from top to bottom. It was a busy and highly productive day for her. But she still could not figure out what needed to be figured out. And rather soon too, she thought. This would be a sensitive issue to bring up, and she didn't know how to bring it up or who tell first or…_anything!_ Then she suddenly thought of who she needed to talk to. The doorbell rang. Jean abandoned her tea on the table and went to answer the door. As if on cue, Alistair waltzed into the house.

"Hi lovely lady." He said, kissing Jean's hand.

"Hello Alistair. Can I get you anything?"

"No, no thank you. I just came by to ask you if you and Judy and Sandy would like to go to dinner with me tonight. I know that Li isn't here, but…"

"That's alright, Alistair. I'm sure that they'd love to."

"Wonderful, shall I pick you up at seven then?" He asked as he stood up.

"Seven it is then." She said.

"Great," he smiled as he turned to leave.

"Alistair, wait!"

"What is it?" He turned to face her; a tone of seriousness and concern could be detected in his voice.

"Alistair. If you had to tell some thing to someone or a few someones that you loved very much, that was going to be really difficult to say to them how would you do it?"

"I would just go ahead and do it. After all, if it's something that serious, it is something that they obviously need to know." He smiled as he turned and left the room. Jean just stood there. She heard the front door close.

"Yes. They do need to know." She whispered to herself.

…………………………

After dinner that night Alistair dropped them off at the house and by this time they were all quite tired. Lionel was not back yet, and wouldn't be for a while. Judy and Sandy were about to head upstairs; but Jean called after them, they came back down and sat in the living room, eagerly awaiting the 'surprise' she had for them.

"Sandy?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Do you remember when you told me that you were adopted?"

"Yeah." She said.

"Well, this is hard for me to tell you, but I'm…"

"You're my birthmother?" She asked, tears coming to her eyes as it all made sense now, and they hugged.

"Yes. Yes I am."

"How did you know?"

"You just seemed familiar to me somehow, and I just knew the very moment I met you and not only that; but I found out for sure when I hired you."

"Did you hire me just because I was your daughter?"

"If she did," Judy said, "then it's nothing new." She said, the thought that her best friend was really her little sister just now hitting her.

"Mum," Sandy said.

"You don't have to call me Mum, after all I gave you up."

"No, but I want to, and that's just what I was about to ask. Why Mum, why did you give me up?"

"Because I couldn't afford to keep you. I'm so sorry sweetheart. You were born after you father…" Jean stopped, trying desperately not to cry.

"I understand."

"And I kept Judy because she was two and…"

"And that would have been cruel." Sandy said. "That's alright, I had a wonderful childhood, and I wouldn't trade it in for anything. My family loved me and I loved them. They were wonderful people."

"I know, but I'm still so sorry."

……………………

Judy realized that she felt slightly cheated as she shut her bedroom door. Why didn't she know about this? Why had she never been told? Her eighteenth birthday would have been the perfect time for that. She turned off the light, climbed into bed and lye there staring at the ceiling. Her thoughts spun in her mind like a cyclone. What was Alistair going to think? What would Lionel think; did he know already? But more importantly, what exactly did she think? Was this okay with her, how would she adjust. But she was comforted by another thought, how did Sandy feel about all of this? And then, suddenly she felt selfish, and suddenly she began to remember.

………………….

She had always wondered who her real family was and what the circumstances surrounding her adoption were, and now she knew. And she was happy, and she knew that she was taking this better than one would anticipate, but she was genuinely content. She was overjoyed to know that she had a wonderful mother and the best sister anyone could ever hope for, but what about her real father? She had heard a little about him, but she knew that even Judy did not even know that much about him, in fact, Judy had no memory of him what so ever. Maybe one day, one day soon, she would ask her Mum.

………………..


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh Alistair. Thank you so much for coming to get me." Judy kissed his cheek as she climbed into his car.

It was nearly one o'clock in the morning, but he had come for her when she called him.

"What is the prob? Everything was fine at dinner."

"Mum told us something." She said quietly.

"Oh, I know."

"You know?"

"Well, I don't know, know, but I know."

"What?"

"Meaning that I knew she had something to tell you; but I didn't know what that thing was."

"Do you now?"

"No." He said as he stopped the car. He made an attempt to get out of the car, but she grabbed his arm, forcing him to stay.

"Here's what Mum told us. To put it short and sweet, Sandy is my little sister."

"You're kidding I could actually see that."

"I'm serious Alistair."

"I know you are, so am I. Don't you see the resemblance?"

"Huh?" Judy asked, slightly shocked by Alistair's last remark.

"Don't you see the resemblance between your mother and Sandy?" Judy gave him one of the saddest and defiantly one of the most confused looks he'd ever encountered.

"Oh Alistair, hold me." She said, falling into his arms as she began to sob uncontrollably.

"Shu, it's alright love." He said, running his fingers through her hair.

"Mum used to call me love." She cried.

"You know, she doesn't love you any less. Besides, you're the one that she kept, right?"

"She said it was only because I was older."

"I know, but she knows you better." He added, as he would do anything to make her feel better.

"Of course she does, that's only logical."

"Listen she loves you…I love you."

"You do Alistair, really?"

"Yes, I do." He kissed her forehead softly.

She smiled at him but couldn't do anything but keep crying. In fact, she cried herself all the way to sleep, and Alistair kissed her goodnight after he tucked her in bed.

As Judy drifted off to sleep, she began to think. And she started to dream. What would it have been like if they had grown up together? And suddenly, she was eight years old again.

"Shu, calm down loves, this won't take a minute."

It was a cold, wet, rainy day. Judy and Sandy each held their mother's hand as she pulled them through the busy London streets. They were just little girls after all. As of late, their mother had been trying to get her business started, and they followed her from place to place all day after school, every day. Needless to say, the two little girls were quite tired of walking of listening, and especially being quiet. Sandy was only five and a half after all. Their mother sat them down in a chair of a lobby.

"Stay right here, alright?" She told them. They nodded forlornly. Judy and Sandy sat together very silently, neither of their feet even reaching the floor. They remained quiet, for they wished to mind their mother so much that they dared not speak, even to each other. The rain pitter-pattered outside.

Judy sat quietly, staring off into space. She was tired. It was Friday and she was sick of school lessons, sick of homework, sick of running errands after school, and very sick of watching Sandy.

Thankfully she wasn't too much younger. She was old enough to be a friend, her best friend, in fact, and a playmate. But she was young enough to be irritating at times and to need some help from her big sister.

"Judy, where's the bathroom?"

Judy sighed and looked about her, wondering what to do.

"Alright." She said, "Come on." She took her school bag and her sister's hand and they walked off.

Jean was preoccupied when she came out of the office where her appointment had been. She wasn't really looking where she was going, just thumbing through her stack of papers when she ran into someone.

"Oh I'm sorry." She looked up and was rendered speechless once she recognized a familiar face from long ago. The man recognized her too but merely apologized and the two backed a way from each other.

Jean was a bit shaken once she reached the place where she'd left her daughters, and became overwhelmingly shaken upon discovering that they were not there. She became even more alarmed once she discovered that they were nowhere to be found. Loosing her nerve, Jean promptly fainted.

"Judy, where's mummy?" Sandy asked after they had been out of the bathroom for quite a while. Judy didn't want to admit to her sister that they had gotten lost, and it was her fault. She was too old to have gotten lost!

"It's alright Sandy." She said motherly as she held her hand tighter.

"No it's not!" She cried. "You're only eight! You don't know anything!"

"Shu, shu Sandy, it's alright. We'll find Mum."

"I want my Mummy!" She said as she began to cry.

"Don't cry, it's alright love." She sighed as she got on her knees and gathered her little sister into her arms.

It was then that a rather stern looking man about their mother's age passed by them in the little vacant hallway. He stopped and looked calmly at the little girls, and Judy looked into his eyes.

"Sir?" Judy asked. "Do you suppose you could help us find our Mum?" This was her way of admitting that she couldn't handle this situation by herself.

"Um…of course." He replied hesitantly. He had no experience with children, especially little girls. He got to his knees to address them. Even though he had a supreme lack of experience with children he couldn't stand to see this little one cry.

"It's alright." He told the small blonde-haired girl as he offered her the tissue that he happened to have in his pocket.

She sniffled as she clung tightly to her big sister. She smiled just a little. She liked this man, and she didn't know why.

"Anyway, can you help us find our mum?"

"Of course. Where did you last see her?"

"In the lobby I think…"

"In that big room with the swinging door." Sandy replied.

"Alright. To the lobby it is."

By this time, Jean had woken up, but now she was in a hospital. She sat straight up.

"What is it? Why am I here?"

"You're fine, you just fainted, but just to be sure." The nurse answered her.

"Can I leave now? I fainted because I lost my children, and I really urgently need to find them."

"Excuse me. There's a call for Ms. Pargetter." Another nurse came into the room. "Line two." And she left.

Jean hastily picked up the phone.

"Yes. Yes, they're my girls. Of course, I'll pick them up. Oh…th..thankyou."

Jean was released from the hospital, and not at all happy to hear that her young daughters were walking home alone. They'd been lost in an office building for crying out loud! How were they supposed to find their way home from there? When Jean got back to the house she paced in the hallway, back and forth between the front door and the kitchen. She grew more and more nervous by the second. Suddenly the doorbell rang, and she rushed to answer it. She flung the door open and gathered her daughter's into her arms.

"Oh loves, you're alright!" She sighed with huge relief as she kissed the tops of their heads and held them tight. It would have been an understatement to say the least if one suggested that the girls were just plain happy to see their mother. Thrilled would be the word.

Jean looked up, for she knew someone was there, she'd seen the figure briefly. It was that man! The one she'd thought she'd recognized.

"Girls, go change, okay?" She instructed as she ushered them into the house and rushed them up the stairs. "Thank you for bringing my girls home." She said to the man. He felt like he knew her too.

"Won't you come in?" She asked. She felt that it was strange to ask a stranger into her house, but he had brought her children back to her, hadn't he?

"Yes. Thank you." He accepted, only because he needed to know who she was.

………………..

"Would you like something to drink?" She asked, as they sat down in the living room.

"No thank you."

"Thank you for finding them, my girls."

"There's no need to thank me. I stumbled upon them in a hallway; they were clearly lost and needed help. Your littlest one was crying and I couldn't stand it, so I helped them."

"Well even if it doesn't mean anything to you, thank you. Thank you very much. Those two are all I have."

"You're welcome then, I guess. My name is Lionel by the way, Lionel Hardcastle."

Jean was taken a back. The name, the face, it was him!

"I'm Jean…" She stopped.

"My lord, it is you."

"Yes, it is me. You never wrote back."

"What are you taking about, you're the one who never wrote back."

"Oh never mind, we stopped talking."

"Well I should be going."

"No…wait…You don't have to. Will you stay for dinner?" She really wanted him to.

"Oh I don't know I really should…"

"I've been very lonely since my husband passed away."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." He stopped and seemed interested in her again.

"I told you the little ones were all I had."

"How long?"

"Just before the little one was born, about six years now. Speaking of which, her birthday is soon. So, will you stay for dinner, now that you and I know each other again?"

"I'd love to."


End file.
